Jemmy Button
Yaghan native, celebrity in England

Jemmy Button

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Yaghan native, celebrity in England
Gender:
Male
Places:
United Kingdom
Is:
Celebrity
Birth:
(Tierra del Fuego)
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Introduction HMS Beagle Arrival in England Return to Patagonia Wulaia Bay Massacre Death Cultural references
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Biography

Introduction

Orundellico, known as "Jeremy Button" or "Jemmy Button" (c. 1815 – 1864), was a native Fuegian of the Yaghan (or Yámana) people from islands around Tierra del Fuego, in modern Chile and Argentina. He was taken to England by Captain FitzRoy in HMS Beagle and became a celebrity for a period.

HMS Beagle

HMS Beagle (centre), watercolour by Owen Stanley (1841)

In 1830, Captain Robert FitzRoy, at the command of the first expedition of the famous Beagle, took a group of hostages from the Fuegian indigenous people after one of his boats was stolen. Jemmy Button was paid for with a mother of pearl button, hence his name. It is not clear whether his family willingly accepted the sale or he was simply abducted. FitzRoy decided to take four of the young Fuegian hostages all the way to England "to become useful as interpreters, and be the means of establishing a friendly disposition towards Englishmen on the part of their countrymen." He seems to have shown great concern for the four, feeding them before his own officers and crew and intending them to be educated and Christianised so that they could improve the conditions of their kin. The names given to the Fuegians by the crew were York Minster, Jemmy Button, Fuegia Basket (a girl) and Boat Memory. The original names of the first three were, respectively, el'leparu, o'run-del'lico and yok'cushly. Boat Memory died of smallpox shortly after his arrival to England, and his Yahgan name is lost.

Arrival in England

The Beagle arrived back in Plymouth from her first voyage of exploration in mid-October 1830. The newspapers soon started publishing details of the Yahgan visitors and they became celebrities. In London, they met King William IV. Fuegia Basket, a young girl, was given a bonnet from Queen Adelaide herself.

Return to Patagonia

One year later, Captain Fitzroy returned the three surviving Fuegans home, at great expense to himself. He took with him a young naturalist, Charles Darwin, in what was the second voyage of the HMS Beagle.

After initial difficulty recalling his language and customs, Jemmy soon shed his European clothes and habits. A few months after his arrival, he was seen emaciated, naked save for a loincloth, and long-haired. Nevertheless, he declined the offer to return to England, which Darwin conjectured was due to the presence of his "young and nice looking wife". It appears that he and the others had taught their families some English.

Wulaia Bay Massacre

Fuegians going to trade in Zapallos with the Patagonians from FitzRoy's Narrative (1839)

In 1855, a group of Christian missionaries from the Patagonian Missionary Society visited Wulaia Bay on Navarino Island, to find that Jemmy still had a remarkable grasp of English. Some time later in 1859, another group of missionaries was killed at Wulaia Bay by the Yaghan, supposedly led by Jemmy and his family. In early 1860, Jemmy visited Keppel Island and gave evidence at the enquiry into the massacre, held in Stanley. He denied responsibility.

Death

In 1863, the missionary Waite Stirling visited Tierra del Fuego and re-established contact with Jemmy; from then relations with the Yaghan improved. In 1866, after Jemmy's death, Stirling took one of Jemmy's sons, known as Threeboy, to England.

Cultural references

Film

  • Creation briefly recounts the story of Jemmy and the other children.
  • The Pearl Button named in part after Jemmy Button tells of his journey

Literature

  • According to Julia Voss, the German children's book, Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer by Michael Ende, translated into English as Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver, was based on Jemmy Button. Ende, who grew up in Nazi Germany, wanted to write a story that provided a contrast to Adolf Hitler's racist ideology and misuse of Darwin's theories of evolution. Ende's 1960 novel became one of the most successful children's books in postwar Germany and won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1961.
  • Jemmy appears in Harry Thompson's debut novel This Thing of Darkness (2005)
  • Jemmy features prominently in "Notes From the Scientific Record" in James Rollins' tenth Sigma Force novel, The 6th Extinction (2014).

Theater

  • A play based on Jemmy's story premiered in Santiago, Chile on April 8, 2010.